MARVELL AND SHENSTONE / SHENSTONE AND MARVELL
Mosque-like domes, water towers,
spires, turrets, masts, steeples,
gambrels, mansards; big piles
of gravel by the tan gravel-crushing
structure; whitened corn cobs
strewn on the grass among
the bent cigarette butts; Andrew
Marvell, the Tree of Ideas
is glistening, the branches
are spectral, and the leaves,
even in this wind, are myriad.
The materials at your disposal,
William Shenstone, are elemental
and refractory. The apples, cool
and round, are wooden apples,
glass apples, metal apples;
wine is kept in one, and in the others
salt, nutmeg, rosewater, ink,
and an unidentified elixir. Andrew Marvell,
William Shenstone, the breeze
blows cool and strong. The sunset…
the sunset is peach-colored;
and it is…deepening.
The mystery is deepening
as it grows closer to you.